Dinosaurs: Marvels of God's Design: Review

  

As a homeschool mom (or even a Christian parent), it is a struggle to teach dinosaurs from a Creationist worldview.  Our boys, especially, devour any thing dinos and you just can’t find enough of a variety of resources with that slant. So eventually their little brains end up playing a game of dino ping pong going from God created the Earth in six days to “millions of years ago”…  So to be able to try out a new Creationist paleontology book was exciting!  Dinosaurs: Marvels of God’s Design by Dr. Tim Clarey arrived in our mail box to review and I was excited!

  One of my pet peeves is people not being able to explain why they believe what they believe.  I know that I don’t have as firm of a grasp on that as I need to as far as Creationism goes, and I want to make sure the kiddos don’t have that problem (and I won’t from here on out for that matter). We are an “old rocks” type of family.  Hubby is an archaeologist and gets asked about digging up fossils all the time.  Even though fossils are paleontology and archaeology is the study of ancient peoples and their artifacts the two disciplines run nicely together because both professionals are bound to come across artifacts from the other profession since it all is found in the dirt.  Hubby has brought home many interesting fossils over the years while he was out doing archaeology survey.  So our lives not only revolve around things found in the dirt, we are constantly confronted with the old earth theory.

A fossil and a piece of coal Hubby found on survey

   This book was not just about Creationism, but a good introduction into dinosaurs in general.  Dr. Clarey dissects all parts of paleontology laying the groundwork for the reader.  So along the way the student learns about classifications, plate tectonics, fossilization, etc… He also addresses many common topics with mainstream paleontology and how they can be explained, and not just with simple explanations either, nice detailed ones that give you and your family the foundation you need to reinforce your stance on Creation.

  An added bonus for us was a nice sized section on Barnum Brown and Charles Sternberg.  Barnum Brown was born just 12 miles from us and Charles Sternberg is also a Kansan.  It was wonderful to see these familiar names pop up in our reading!  It was also fascinating to learn of the bone wars and how that affected how some of the dinosaurs were presented to the world. 

  The thing I loved about this book is not just the glut of information (and it is filled to the brim with that!) but the pictures! Tons and tons of pictures!  Some from digs the author has been a part of.  This book is great for not just older readers, but younger ones as well.  Dr. Clarey uses easy to read language, but technical enough for those know-it-all readers (like someone I live with). 

  One thing I wish this book had was a good ol’ suggested reading list beyond the books that are put out by Master Books.  Books with good sourcing for the young earth viewpoints are hard to come by and it would have been a valuable addition for young (and old researchers).   Some of the ones on our bookshelf include: What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs by John Morris and Ken Ham; Chronicles of Dinosauria: The History & Mystery of Dinosaurs and Man by Dave Woetzel; Dragons or Dinosaurs: Creation or Evolution by Darek Isaacs; and Dragons: Legends and Lore of Dinosaurs by Master Books.
   Overall this is a book I would highly recommend for including in your home library.  It is a resource that would be excellent to refer to time and time again.
  Thank you to Cross Focused Reviews for giving me a chance to review this.  All opinions in this blog are my own. 

Field Trip: Museum of the Great Plains

  We reached our primary destination near the Wichita Mountains.  Hubby and I were going to be deeply entrenched in research so we had a variety of trips for the family to go and visit.  It turns out we only needed one ;)   The Museum of the Great Plains was not open when we had visited this area a couple of months ago, and it had actually just re-opened after renovations just a couple of weeks prior to this trip, so we were among the first to experience all that it had to offer. 
  All I can say is wow!  Now, that's me speaking as one who did not set foot in the museum galleries.  The kids spent approximately 8 hours over two days in the museum and really only stopped when they had to eat something.  They went on and on in the evenings about all the activities they did, what they saw, and what they wanted to do again.
   From the printing press...

printing press

where they could make signs for the mock town that was set up for them.  The town featured actual historical figures from the area and told their stories.

The kids with one of their store signs

Each area had a docent which was on hand to assist the kiddos and give them more details.

Shorty getting some help with a wind tunnel from one of the docents

One of the areas they went back to several times was the buffalo that you could dissect.  Shorty dubbed him "Buffy" and gave him a hug before they left :)

The kids removing Buffy's organs

They even had fun things like a huge LiteBrite...

I could go on and on about the animatronic dinosaurs to the tornado shelter that made you feel like you were going through a tornadic storm.  I. am. jealous.  I have resolved to go into the museum the next time we're down south.
  I asked the kids which they liked better, this museum or the Illinois State Museum which we visited earlier this year and is the closest in comparison for hands on learning.  They refused to choose, but they did say that this one was way more hands on. 
  Just as a comparison, our local history museum (the Kansas State Historical Museum) charges $6 per child, and the Museum of the Great Plains charges $8, the Illinois State Museum was free.  All do fantastic jobs of telling the story of their state and areas.  All have a majority of permanent exhibits.  The Illinois State Museum and the Kansas Historical Museum have some age to their exhibits, the Kansas one being the older.  The big difference between these museums and why the Kansas Museum doesn't even come close is the interaction.  The other two make you an active participant in history all through your museum experience.  Want to make what most consider to be the most boring subject in school come alive to a child?  Have them feel it! Draw them in to the story, don't just tell them it.  My most favorite teacher in school was my junior high history teacher, and I give him a huge credit for my love of history.  He would "preach" history to us and give us a "hallelujah" when we gave him the right answer.  He would take one of the students, lay him on a table and reenact Meso-American Indian sacrifices (this happened one time when a group of Kindergarteners was walking by our classroom door - you should have seen their eyes get big! But I digress...).   I am so thankful for museums like the Museum of the Great Plains.  We'll end up there again, and it might be hard for the kids to branch out to the other sights in the area now ;)    

Field Trip: University of Oklahoma Art Museum

    Hubby and I had another round of research in Oklahoma this week, so we loaded up the family along with Ducky and Grandma and took off.  I have to say I was a little jealous.  Hubby, Mookie and I did this...

Hubby was sneaking pics

at the University of Oklahoma Western History Collections.  And the rest of the gang went to OU's art museum where they had an exhibition called Immortales: The Hall of Emperors of the Capitoline Museums, Rome.  There were about 20 busts from early to late Rome.  This fit perfectly for our history studies which have been focusing on ancient history.

Bubby was in heaven.  Went through and took a picture of each bust with his camera and regaled us with details when we met up later in the evening.  To be honest, I was a little worried about Shorty on this one.  He's a busy guy, and while he has excellent behavior long trips contribute to unpredictable outcomes for little ones.  He did wonderfully though.  Grandma had him keeping his hands to himself...

following Bubby's example.  And there were hands on things to do too like blowing into a pipe and making digital art move.

Day one ended with success and then the real fun began the next day...

>to be continued< 

Field Trip: Tallgrass Nature Preserve

  We've been wanting to do this one for.ev.er!  We had printed our Junior Ranger packets out for Tallgrass Nature Preserve 2 years ago and filled them out.  Each time we've tried, we've been deflected from our goal.  But our time came!  Hubby and I had some business to do down near Strong City and today was our chance!

  On not too bad of a day for the middle of November, we dropped Hubby off at the job site and went in search of some multi-sensory learning :) The Tallgrass Nature Preserve is located just north of Strong City and like many of the smaller National Parks, has free admission.  The kids had their Junior Ranger packets in hand and double checked answers and filled in some blanks they hadn't needed to finish. 

The Visitor's Center was not very large, but it did a good job of telling the story of the prairie and the critters that live there.  After walking around and watching the short video on the area, we headed out to one of the other exhibits.

This ranch, which is part of the preserve, has been around since 1882.  It is absolutely fabulous.  You are able to explore two of the three levels of the barn...

This picture of Shorty kills me.  He had been walking around for a while with what looked like a piece of straw in his mouth - gross, but he was being a farmer right?  Well, one of the other kids asked him where he got the toothpick.  Toothpick?  Ok, now it was mom's turn to ask where he got the toothpick. "Down on the sidewalk by the horse".  YUCK!!!! This picture is us in the middle of trying to get him to PUT IT DOWN!!! :) Bleh!
 

We made a new buddy :) Then it was off to explore the house.  The house is not very furnished, but I am sure that is due to low staff.  The whole complex had adequate signage and really the architecture was so elaborate, who needs "stuff" ? ;)

Mookie working on her Ranger booklet

The "secret passage"

The kids' favorite was the tunnels that took you from one root cellar to another.

The grand front entrance

We accomplished our Ranger goal and got sworn in as Rangers of the Tallgrass prairie :) Then it was off to the Lower Fox Creek School just up the road and also part of the Preserve.

The building was furnished and had some accessories for the kids to play school with.  We played there for quite a long time.  Then we waited at the city park before it was time to pick up Hubby. It had the coolest swing!

The building in the background is an old auditorium.  It was so sad to see it abandoned.  Grand total for today's trip: lunch and gas.  There's a ton more to do in that area too with Council Grove just up the highway and Cottonwood Falls across the river.  We'll be back ;)

Field Trip: Are you prepared?

Bubby a few years ago

   The Royals won the World Series this week.  It's been 30 years since that goal has been attained.  Our family has thoroughly enjoyed attending a few Royals' games over the years.  Hubby suggested that we see if Union Station was open on the day of the parade and then hang out until the parade ended there for the rally.  Sounded like a good idea, and Union Station (which houses Science City, a children's museum) was discounted on account of being closed when the parade started, so we made it a date with Ducky and Grandma.
  We headed out bright and early this morning so we could arrive at Union Station at 9.  The exhibits opened at 8 but we figured we had a nice balance by leaving the house at 7:30.  Well, traffic was really awful when we hit downtown Kansas City and Hubby and Ducky dumped us out about 4 blocks from our destination and went to find a parking space at about 10:30. People were already parking on any green space that was available and even in the medians, so we knew finding that place would be hard!

People were bailing out of their cars on the highway to go in advance and hold places for family

Hoofin' it

We had no plan other than the Station to meet - this turned out to be a problem!  The kids, Grandma and I got to the area in front of the Station and I texted Hubby a general text that we had gotten there and were by the music.  We had a bathroom emergency so went in search of a bathroom.  The porta-potty lines were horrendous so we went into the station (I'd rather wait in a huge line for an inside bathroom anyway).  All thoughts of actually going to the exhibits were out of mind now.  The crowd was growing by the second.  I went to send a text to Hubby and my other message was still sending - cell service was overwhelmed!  So I shot him another note and we waited in line.  By the time we exited the building, Hubby had told me they were at the station, so we still had no clue where each other was.  Out into the sea of humanity we went.

Looking for the guys

We found a place and stayed with it.  Calling was out of the question, so I sent another text with our specific location.  When that one failed, we set out in a search for the boys.  Amazingly we found them!  Hubby had sent numerous texts as well that had failed.  I am seriously amazed we actually found each other.
  We didn't last the whole time, but we made the most of our time and made some memories.  Here is what I learned from our experiences:
  1) Make a specific plan if you are going to be separated from your group.  Normally our general plan would have worked, but this day proved to be unprecedented on so many levels that a specific plan would have saved a bunch of time! We needed to pretend that we were living in 1985 (the last time the Royals won the Series) and not rely on those silly cell phones so heavily!
  2) In a crowd situation - take a backpack instead of a purse.  I had and boy was I so glad I did!  I stuffed our jackets in it and other supplies too!  Much easier to carry!
  3) Identifying clothing.  You're saying, "yeah, yeah" but today most everyone was wearing royal blue with something Royals on it.  After I thought about it for a while I was scared Shorty would take off on me without his jacket on and I wouldn't be able to see his blue Superman shirt for the sea of Royals shirts.  I wish I'd dressed the kids in florescents no matter how much they would have protested.
  4) Carry food and water.  I had the water, but neglected to switch the granola bars over from my purse to the backpack and we could have used them.
  5) Carry change.  When we attempted to buy some extra snacks, the snack machines was only accepting coins.  My extra quarters came in real handy!
  6) Don't get stressed!  We went into this day to expect the unexpected and I'm so glad we did!  It greatly decreased the stress level for all of us.  There were a lot of things that we could have reacted strongly to when they weren't going right, but it helped that we were going with the flow.  The kids benefited too because when we get stressed they pick up on that too.  

Letting the 500,000 other people have their fun

Today was definitely a day we will never forget :) I am so grateful for the time we were able to spend together and the lessons we learned along the way :)

Field Trip: Best Laid Plans

We were supposed to go to Council Grove. The threat of rain with the hour long drive kept us close to home though.  So we decided to go close to home and hit the trails close to the Governor's Mansion in Topeka.  Our buddies met us at the main trail at the Cedar Crest grounds.  We started in, but quickly realized that what we really wanted was a wooded trail that would 1) shelter us from the damp cold of the otherwise beautiful fall day and 2) create a more interesting walk.   Although some didn't care where we went, they were just happy to be there ;)

   Our quest for a new trail took us up to the area by the Kansas Wildlife and Parks center.  Grandma has been after me for a while to take the kids to the KDWP building, so we can mark it off of our list now ;)   It is a great resource.  They have all kinds of free identification guides, trail maps, and more.  There are aquariums with little critters...

Lots of furs from different local animals...

After I toned the kids back on taking one each of every identification guide (we would have put quite a dent in their supply), we headed to the great outdoors!  It was a wonderful trail.  At the end, we broke from it and followed a road that headed the direction of the cars.  It took us right into the old Menninger hospital grounds.  I guess it is technically trespassing, but that road wasn't marked, so we enjoyed looking at the old buildings as we made our way to our cars ;)

   I am not sure any one of the field trips we've taken this year was totally planned out, but I'll tell you what, I wouldn't trade a one!  Who needs plans? ;)

Blackjack battle!

  This weekend was kind of symbolic. Bubby has been involved with Boy Scouts since he was a Tiger cub.  Since he joined he has always wanted to become an Eagle Scout like his grandpa Ducky.  This year has held some drastic changes with our pack and our troop is battling our way up from bare bones to even stay in existence.  In order to garner some excitement, the parents have been trying to find some pretty exciting things to build our boys up with Scouting interest while holding on to our dwindling numbers.  The first thing that came to our attention was this super cool reenactment of a pre-Civil War battle that had been held for the past couple of years close to the nearby town of Baldwin, Kansas.  This Battle of Blackjack took place between pro-slavery and free-state forces (led by John Brown and crew) in 1856 and was a result of the rising tensions of the time.  Through some wonderful connections we made we not only received an invite to the event, but also offers of mentorship for our troop!  What a blessing!
  One of the things that they needed to take with them was a mock-gun because real guns were not allowed.  One of our good buddies helped cut the gun forms out for the boys (Bubby got to assist) and then the boys were able to detail them.

  The boys had arrived to the Blackjack battlegrounds on Friday, and while the main event didn't take place until the next day, they participated in "raids" on the other camps all evening and were up by 5am on Saturday morning raiding the other camps then too!

looking over the schedule

  They broke out into groups on Saturday and rotated through different stations which included listening to a talk by a John Brown reenactor...

John Brown watching his battle (center)

a reenactor portraying Henry Pate who led the pro-slavery forces, a tour of a Civil War encampment and learned about some period historic artifacts...

The main event was the reenactment.  The boys were divided up and preformed the battle two times.  It was complete with sound effects of gun shots and smoke machines!

Bubby waiting for his turn

Someone wishing he could join Bubby in battle

the conquering heroes

The weekend was a complete success!  The boys got a second weekend of two night camping under their belts (last weekend it was camping at a black powder rendezvous), cooked some great food in the open air and had a ton of fun and made some new friends too!  While we still have a ways to go as a troop, the future looks bright and our Scouts are happy Scouts :)

Field Trip: Wichita Mountains

  Hubby and I's work project ultimately took us to the Wichita Mountains.  Have you heard of them? They are located in southern Oklahoma and are encapsulated in a wildlife preserve.  As homeschoolers this was a a schooling dream!  Geology, biology, history and more, not to mention all the hiking too!

  The wildlife includes buffalo, longhorns, and elk all of which are herds maintained for preservation purposes.  These guys are everywhere.  You see them on the roads and on the trails.  It is super cool!  The boys even heard the elk bugling while they were out hiking one afternoon!  The kids got chased by prairie dogs, poked at millipedes, and saw these wonderful little lizards too...

The kids had seen pictures of them prior to our trip and it was their goal to see them before they left.  We saw the biggest concentration at the Holy City of the Wichitas.  The Holy City is neat, it was and is the site of a large passion play every year.

The neat thing about the Holy City is that it is not only the setting for a play, but for those that come to wander the grounds, they have little dioramas amongst the set that tell the story of the different stations of the cross.  The kids loved exploring here!
  Our explorations also took us to the Wichita's dams...

And to the summit of Mt. Scott its highest mountain...

While we were up there we saw another fun member of the wildlife in the mountains, a roadrunner...

One of our favorite treks was to the "watchtower" at Jed Johnson lake.

It was about 1/2 mile to get back to it and when we did we felt like this...

*disclaimer* we did not write this, but it was funny :)

Well, some of us did.  Some of us were just content to pick up "treasures" aka. pieces of glass (notice the bulging pockets?).

One of our favorite places that is on the edge of the Wichitas is Medicine Park.  It was created as a resort community to the Wichita Mountains.  Its architecture is fun with the cobblestone boulders...

The building in the background of the picture above is the Plantation Restaurant - excellent food!
The neatest part of Medicine Park was the "Creek Walk" which took you along Medicine Creek.  There was a swimming area...

and just fun little park areas...

We spent a full week in the Wichitas.  The working vacation kind of wore us out, but we were having so much fun we were not too willing to come home.  I'm hoping our schedules give us another chance to return and explore some more!